Urtė Šmitaitė-Spider Bin Recyclable Waste Sorting System

At Design Interviews

Interview with Urtė Šmitaitė : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Urtė Šmitaitė : Spider bin is a universal and economical solution for sorting recyclable materials. A group of pop-up bins are created for homes, offices or outdoors. One item with two basic parts: a frame and a bag. It is easily moved from one place to another, convenient to transport and store, because it can be flat when not in use. Buyers order spider bin online where they can choose size, number of Spider Bins and the bag type according to their needs. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. Urtė Šmitaitė : In Lithuania only 5% of the waste we make gets recycled. It is mostly because it is hard for people to understand the process of sorting and recycling, the waste managing system is not trusted, any kind of waste is considered &quot;disgusting”. I wanted to suggest a product for homes. I wanted it to be universal, customer friendly, fitting our everyday lives.
Here people tend to be ashamed of dealing with waste process, they try to hide it, so I did the opposite and used transparency of the Spider Bin to provoke a discussion on the environmental issues and the ways to solve it.
.Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Urtė Šmitaitė : This was my graduation project for getting the Bachelor degree in “Vilnius Academy of Arts” therefore I had one semester to come up with the concept. After graduation I continued polishing the design, trying to get it closer to mass production. It is still a work in progress. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Urtė Šmitaitė : In the process of creating this product I was aspired to make not only the object but also the topic of environmental issues a bit friendlier to the customer. In my mind the bin became like a pet, following me around the house, feeding on freshly sorted recyclables. The frame shape has some similarities to a spider’s body. The emotional controversy of this image - a friendly spider as a pet - that&#039;s why it&#039;s &quot;Spider Bin&quot;! .Frank Scott: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?. Urtė Šmitaitė : For my practical research on the current situation of sorting and recycling culture, I have made a customer survey, analog analysis and a collection of interviews with professionals and specific users.
I found out that the most popular recyclable waste container is a plastic bag - 90% of people use it. Therefore I decided to create an adaptable frame that would give more aesthetics to these bags - give it shape and construction without adding anything unnecessary. Later based on the main waste managing principle “reduce, re-use, recycle” I decided to suggest more sustainable reusable bag option. .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. Urtė Šmitaitė : Rejection of the topic was the most challenging in my opinion. Recycling idea is still not very popular among people in Lithuania, though it is changing fast. I received a lot of support and excitement from people who are already sorting their recyclables, but the ones who haven’t started yet often felt uncomfortable discussing these topics.
Main technical challenge was to design the central joint of the frame, so that it would give Spider Bin the pop-up effect, while using material in the most efficient way. We are still finishing some details preparing it for realization.
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